Tina Fey Isn't Funny
Ubiquitous
Are they kidding?
That was my first thought when I heard The Kennedy Center had named Tina Fey
the 2010 recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor last week. Fey
will receive the honor in Washington D.C. on November 9. The ceremony will
subsequently be broadcast on PBS as it has been since 2000.
The Mark Twain Prize was established in 1998 "to recognize those who create
humor from their uniquely American experiences." Past recipients include
Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin and Saturday Night Live
producer Lorne Michaels.
In 2009, the award was bestowed upon Bill Cosby. The idea of honoring Tina Fey
the year after Bill Cosby is kind of like the Baseball Hall of Fame enshrining
"Marvelous" Marv Thornberry the year after inducting Mickey Mantle. The Mick
and Marvelous Marv were both baseball players but the similarities end there.
Cosby and Fey are both comedians but there too the similarities end.
If Fey is being honored for creating humor from her uniquely American
experience, then the best that I can tell it is because of her imitation of
Sarah Palin. Not that I object to her impersonation because Palin certainly
doesn't. Of course, Palin was such a good sport about it that she went on SNL
to meet her mimic. (4) In Going Rogue, Palin recounts dressing up as Fey
during one Halloween. Palin writes, "I was Tina Fey before she was me."
But let's not kid ourselves. When Fey receives the prize in November, a week
removed from the midterm elections, the ceremony will turn into little more
than yet another opportunity for the so-called sophisticates from D.C., New
York and Hollywood to pillory Palin. If not for the former Alaska Governor,
would Fey have been honored this year? In which case, it would merely confirm
that Fey is being honored for all the wrong reasons.
Now some might argue that I am merely objecting to Fey's liberal politics.
That is hardly the case. Robin Williams is as liberal as they come. Over the
years, he has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic
Party. But whatever his politics it would be foolhardy to deny his comedic
genius. If Williams's contributions to American humor aren't unique, it would
be impossible to imagine someone fitting of the word. The Kennedy Center,
however, has yet to honor Williams. Can anyone honestly tell me that Tina Fey
is more deserving of the Mark Twain Prize than Robin Williams?
Others still might argue that there's more to Fey than Sarah Palin. They might
point to her being the first female head writer at Saturday Night Live. They
might also point to her success as the star and executive producer of the NBC
show 30 Rock, which is loosely based on her experiences at SNL.
Well, being the first female head writer at SNL is all well and good but it
doesn't amount to a pinch of salt if the show isn't funny. Admittedly, I
haven't watched the show nearly as much as I did in the 1980s and the early
1990s (not to mention the reruns from the 1970s). But there's the Catch-22.
Why would I watch a comedy show week after week if it doesn't make me laugh?
Why would I watch a comedy show if I cannot find amusement in it? Why would I
watch a comedy show if it can scarcely make me crack a smile? Kennedy Center
Chairman David M. Rubenstein said of Fey, "Like Mark Twain, Tina Fey offers
her brilliance unconditionally." Yet when I watch Fey I have to ask myself,
what is the brilliance of which Rubenstein speaks?
I did watch part of Fey's recent turn as SNL host back in April. Oy Fey!!!
Sorry, her skit with Justin Bieber gave me the creeps. Perhaps some people
find the sight of a middle-aged woman fantasizing about a barely adolescent
boy funny, but I sat on the couch stone-faced. I had to flip the channel by
the end of the first half hour.
As for 30 Rock, outside of Alec Baldwin, isn't it little more than a pale
version of The Larry Sanders Show? Yet I haven't seen The Kennedy Center place
a call to Garry Shandling.
By this point, some of you might accuse me of not finding women funny. While I
generally find women less funny than men the argument doesn't apply here.
Because if anyone should be honored with the Mark Twain Prize it ought to be
Carol Burnett, a woman who with the tug of her ear could tug at your heart.
How can she not be recognized for her contributions to American humor? She was
the first amongst equals on one of the greatest shows in the history of
television. How can she not be recognized for her contributions to American
humor? Granted, Burnett was presented with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2003.
However, this hasn't prevented Bill Cosby, Steve Martin and Neil Simon from
receiving both the Kennedy Center Honors and the Mark Twain Prize.
Humor, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I am well aware there are
many people who consider Tina Fey to be funny. But the idea of honoring Tina
Fey for her humor seems like a bad running joke in a comedy sketch that just
won't end. As Mark Twain wrote in one of his many letters, "Humor unsupported
rather hurts its author in the estimation of the reader." It might only be one
man's opinion, but Tina Fey just isn't funny.
--
It's now time for healing, and for fixing the damage the Democrats did
to America.
Rhino
"Ubiquitous" <web...@polaris.net> wrote in message
news:svWdnal13a8WEZrR...@giganews.com...
> By Aaron Goldstein
>
[snip]
>
> The Mark Twain Prize was established in 1998 "to recognize those who
> create
> humor from their uniquely American experiences." Past recipients include
> Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart, Lily Tomlin and Saturday Night
> Live
> producer Lorne Michaels.
>
> But let's not kid ourselves. When Fey receives the prize in November, a
> week
> removed from the midterm elections, the ceremony will turn into little
> more
> than yet another opportunity for the so-called sophisticates from D.C.,
> New
> York and Hollywood to pillory Palin. If not for the former Alaska
> Governor,
> would Fey have been honored this year? In which case, it would merely
> confirm
> that Fey is being honored for all the wrong reasons.
>
Maybe this is a new trend. Obama got a hugely undeserved Nobel Peace Prize
not so long ago....
--
Rhino
Ubiquitous
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Seapig
If it's supposed to be a lifetime achievement award, I could see
questioning giving it to Tina Fey, because she hasn't achieved
enough. But to question it because you don't think she's funny is
idiotic. Different people have different senses of humor. Everyone
who has ever received the award has huge groups of people who don't
find them funny.
Barry Margolin
<003b5954-d12f-478a...@q39g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
Seapig <sea...@altavista.com> wrote:
But I'll bet they all have much larger groups of people who DO find them
funny. They all had decades of success in the comedy industry, and
became household names. Whether or not you personally find Cosby funny,
you have to recognize that he's a comedy legend; it's more likely that
you're out of step than that he's not a comedy genius.
Tina Fey, on the other hand, has no such track record. She hasn't been
around long enough to say one way or the other whether she's a great
comedienne. Regardless of whether anyone finds her funny, it's too soon
for this award.
--
Barry Margolin, bar...@alum.mit.edu
Arlington, MA
*** PLEASE don't copy me on replies, I'll read them in the group ***
tomcervo
> By Aaron Goldstein
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/06/02/tina-fey-isnt-funny
Let's face it--she could be Dorothy Thompson channeling Judy Holliday
and NO ONE at the Spectator would find her funny--because she makes
Blessed Mother Palin look like the hustling rube that she is.
It's now time for healing, and for fixing the damage Ubi did to
rec.arts.tv
Dano
Nonsense. Nothing is more subjective than humor. Tina Fey is hilarious.
Has been for some time now. It can't be helped if you're a humorless jerk.
Or simply an old fart who doesn't "get" her humor. A lot of this is
generational. I'll bet that like me, you are well past 50. I still find
most of her stuff very funny...though at times it may seem a little too
"inside jokey" for my own taste. Most of her audience (and it IS a
substantial one) understands.
I'll bet you think Don Rickles is hysterical.
Barry Margolin
"Dano" <janea...@yahoo.com> wrote:
Where did you get the idea that I don't find her funny? I do. But she
just hasn't done enough to earn an award like this.
It would be like if they gave Jim Carrey a career achievement award
after he did "The Mask". While his performances in that movie and "In
Living Color" certainly showed his potential, he hadn't yet shown that
he was an enduring star.
Dano
"Barry Margolin" <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:barmar-2EEC98....@news.eternal-september.org...
the premise of the subject.
Now. What the hell does one have to do in your estimation to prove oneself?
This woman wrote and performed for around ten years on SNL. Has won and/or
been nominated for numerous awards...from multiple Emmy's, Sag, WGA, Golden
Globes and more. She created and writes 30 Rock. Damn man...I could but
won't go on as I'm sounding like a publicist. But really...if you think
she's the least bit funny...WTF is your beef?
Barry Margolin
"Dano" <janea...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Now. What the hell does one have to do in your estimation to prove oneself?
> This woman wrote and performed for around ten years on SNL. Has won and/or
> been nominated for numerous awards...from multiple Emmy's, Sag, WGA, Golden
> Globes and more. She created and writes 30 Rock. Damn man...I could but
> won't go on as I'm sounding like a publicist. But really...if you think
> she's the least bit funny...WTF is your beef?
She's created one TV show that's reasonably funny, but doesn't seem
poised to become a classic (and would probably have died early on if not
for Alec Baldwin).
She's written a couple of movies, and starred in one of them. They were
pretty good.
The years when she was writing on SNL are not exactly the show's heyday,
although not its lowest point, either. But if it weren't for her Sarah
Palin impersonations, she'd hardly be known to most viewers.
How many of the awards you mentioned were for her personally? Weren't
some of them for ensembles or writing teams?
Did you see the list of past recipients that was posted? Does she
really have a career that puts her in the same category as them? Except
for Whoopi Goldberg, they've all been making audiences laugh at least
since the 70's, and some since the 50's. Richard Pryor's career was cut
short because he died, but he was already widely regarded as a comedy
genius.
She's definitely on the way to joining their ranks. But just confining
my thoughts to other female comics, does she really deserve it ahead of
women like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett?
shawn
<bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
>In article <tXkOn.26055$yx.1...@newsfe13.iad>,
> "Dano" <janea...@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Now. What the hell does one have to do in your estimation to prove oneself?
>> This woman wrote and performed for around ten years on SNL. Has won and/or
>> been nominated for numerous awards...from multiple Emmy's, Sag, WGA, Golden
>> Globes and more. She created and writes 30 Rock. Damn man...I could but
>> won't go on as I'm sounding like a publicist. But really...if you think
>> she's the least bit funny...WTF is your beef?
>
>She's created one TV show that's reasonably funny, but doesn't seem
>poised to become a classic (and would probably have died early on if not
>for Alec Baldwin).
I'll definitely agree with this. I enjoy "30 Rock" but without Baldwin
I can't see the show having made it past the first year.
>She's written a couple of movies, and starred in one of them. They were
>pretty good.
>
>The years when she was writing on SNL are not exactly the show's heyday,
>although not its lowest point, either. But if it weren't for her Sarah
>Palin impersonations, she'd hardly be known to most viewers.
That's typical for most of the SNL performers. It takes some
breakthrough character to get people to remember them years later like
Buckwheat and Eddie Murphy.
>How many of the awards you mentioned were for her personally? Weren't
>some of them for ensembles or writing teams?
>
>Did you see the list of past recipients that was posted? Does she
>really have a career that puts her in the same category as them? Except
>for Whoopi Goldberg, they've all been making audiences laugh at least
>since the 70's, and some since the 50's. Richard Pryor's career was cut
>short because he died, but he was already widely regarded as a comedy
>genius.
>
>She's definitely on the way to joining their ranks. But just confining
>my thoughts to other female comics, does she really deserve it ahead of
>women like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett?
I can't see it. It sounds like more of an effort to make the award
relevant to a younger audience by giving an award to someone that they
are more likely to know and like.
rwgibson13
> On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:01:10 -0400, Barry Margolin
>
> <bar...@alum.mit.edu> wrote:
Coming to this one late, but if this last is the case, what exactly
does that say about the current state of comedy?
Hell, why not JIm Carrey or Adam Sandler?
RWG (and, yes, that was sarcasm :-)
Seapig
> In article <tXkOn.26055$yx.12...@newsfe13.iad>,
> She's definitely on the way to joining their ranks. But just confining
> my thoughts to other female comics, does she really deserve it ahead of
> women like Lucille Ball or Carol Burnett?
Both were great performers, but I'm not sure how much writing, if any,
either did. Not everybody that's received the honor has been a
performer, but they've all been writers.
Lucy has the added disadvantage of being dead. Carlin is the only one
they've honored posthumously, and they didn't plan it that way.
rwgibson13
Makes me wonder how much of this particular award depends on who can
actually show up and write their own kissing ass speech.
RWG (joking, I think)